Survival

In a crowded room of high hopes

Dashed on a rocky coastline.

Lifetime of failed relationships,

Violent confrontations,

Suppressing emotions,

But taking one step at a time toward the day

When you can make good your mistake.

Courtesy still mattered,

Remaining loyal.

We lost our faith amidst the echo

But we survived.

“Be gone cold-hearted violence

And let me love.”

Written by Kathryn Lee 2006

Living the dream...

At 24, you are indisputably an adult. Unless you have some serious behavioural issues of course. By now, you are deemed by society to be an adult. You have crossed through the grey area that is adolescence, hopefully largely unscarred, and have arrived at Adulthood. It took me a while to actually figure out where I was to be begin with. And then the subtle pressures and expectations started.

Throughout my life I've spent years, literally, defending my maturity to my parents. The number of times I have protested that I am old enough to know X, that I am old enough to go and do Y... And now I have finally arrived and recognised I am in Adulthood, they're asking me when I'm going to get married and buy a house. Hang on a second! Just because I have reached this strange town called Adulthood doesn't mean I want to inhabit Sensible Street immediately!

It seems that some people get old enough to do whatever they want and then end up doing what everyone expects them to do. Frankly, I find that horrifying. Why not have a bit of space to yourself? See the world, study a bit more, have fun while you still can! Obviously, I am not judging, nor am I scoffing at, people that want to marry young (and by young I mean under 22) or buy a house of their own as soon as possible. It's the "what then" that worries me.

It's when people give up their dreams hopes and aspirations because they think that they should be living in Sensible Street as soon as possible because it's the right thing to do. To hell with that!! You only have roughly 75-85 years on this earth if you're LUCKY! I mean, dreams and aspirations don't have to ground breaking or huge to be important. You just need to have one that's important to you. To give up a dream is is to give up hope. The spark goes out of life and everything in your life suffers, but most importantly it is your soul that suffers most.

And I know sure as the rise and fall of the tide, that I don't want to wind up one of those people who have lived their entire life on Sensible Street that wind up saying: Oh if only I had .... So don't mind me if I don't do as society expects me to for a few more years yet. Buying a house will be way more fun when we have collected a few good photos and artefacts from around the globe to decorate it with.

You might call me irresponsible but I prefer the term free spirited.

How far is too far?

Online profiles... How far is too far? How much information are you obliged to reveal... or not.

Say a person is in a stable relationship of several years has an online profile. On this profile, this person reveals all manner of personal content: languages spoken, favourite bands, even their current location. But they don't reveal their relationship status. How morally reprehensible is that, anyway?

For further consideration, say this person has many 'friends' of the opposite sex added to their profile. Attractive and scantily clad members of the opposite sex. Are we still behind the line of propriety or are we beyond it?

This one is a difficult one to pin down. Of course, this person did not state they were single (which would have caused them a world of pain had they been discovered doing this) but by not indicating that they were in a relationship this suggests that they are available. And hence the addition of the attractive 'friends'.

It could be argued that the profiler had forgotten to update this vital piece of information. It could also be argued that the profiler was curious to see what attention they could get if they did not update it.

I guess it all comes down to intention. Intention is such a vague word and concept. It can't be proven or denied, only guessed at or claimed. If the intention of the profiler was purely to see who was out there in the wide world and to chat to a variety of different people, then that's surely not a great crime. But if the intention was to see what kind of attention they could glean from the opposite sex behind their partner's back, then it becomes questionable. Not cheating, but questionable. Questionable behaviour that, without the required restraint and knowledge of where to draw the line, could conceivably lead to cheating.

I guess there are no absolutes in the world and there certainly aren't any in love. Some people say "love like you've never been hurt" and that's all good with me, but do it with a clear mind and open eyes. There's a fine line between trust and gullibility. Mind you there is also a fine line between thinking critically and thinking cynically. The balance will be different for everyone.

For me, I could handle the attractive friends of the opposite sex - in theory. So long as they were clearly aware of this person's relationship status. If you leave to much open to assumption, you're very likely to find yourself on the receiving end of some less welcome assumptions. It's how it is. The world isn't that big, after all. Especially online!!

The beginning of a beautiful friendship??

A wise person once said to me: if you want to write, just do it.

And so here I am, writing. Who will read this? Who will care about my meandering musings about my existence? I guess time will tell.

The main thing about blogs, I am told, is to make sure you update them regularly. I will try my absolute best even if it is only for the purpose of me writing something on a regular basis. I'm not sure where (if anywhere) this is going to take me, but hey!! You only live once. You may as well blog at least once, right?

Someone please say "right".